My Christmas gift to you: A link on the stats page to a csv file containing the efficiency and tempo data for every team. Load it into Excel and go to town. It’s not Malibu Barbie, but maybe you can find a use for it. I’ll be back sometime next week.

Love your blog. But, why is Gonzaga overrated? They’re doing quite well against a top-10 schedule while playing without key contributors. They’ve beaten good teams in MSU and Maryland. Their losses were entirely respectable. They lost to UConn by 1 after playing three overtimes the night before, and they lost to Washington by 4 after Derek Raivio got injured halfway through the first half (He played 11 minutes).

If Knight, Heytvelt, and Raivio were all healthy for all of this season, Gonzaga might very well be undefeated and probably ranked #2 behind Duke.

Memphis is a tough game because it’s at their place, and Gonzaga might lose. They might even lose by double digits. But, let’s not forget how understaffed they are because of injuries right now. You are right to point out that Gonzaga plays porous defense. Well, Knight and Heytvelt are two of the top 3…

It’s occurred to me that I’ve been a little too focused on the overrated so far this season (Houston, hello!). So let’s promote a team that deserves a little more attention.

It’s no fun to be the last person on your block to know something. By this time next week, everyone, including your grandma, will be talking about how great Memphis is. They’ll be coming off a win over my favorite overrated team, Gonzaga. So talk the Tigers up before the weekend. Seriously, if Gonzaga pulls off a win in next Tuesday’s game, it will be the most impressive thing they’ve done since, well, maybe in the whole Mark Few era.…

I was won over by the fact that two separate Holy Cross fans e-mailed me about Hamilton’s San Juan Shootout performance. This should not be an indication I am a total pushover. But really, it was the first time two people voted for the same person in a seemingly unorganized effort. And if I find out it was organized, then I’ll have to strip Hamilton of the honors and give it to David Moss (24 pts, 6 assists) of improbably unbeaten Indiana State.

I’m getting a little closer to posting some of the more exotic individual stats on a regular basis. For now, here are some of the national leaders (through Saturday). I’ve required one to play in 40% of his team’s minutes to qualify. For shooting stats, a player needs to average four FGAs per game. Stats against non-D1 teams don’t count.

Best Offensive Rebounder: Jason Cain of Virginia is grabbing 20.3% of his own team’s missed shots - even after getting shut out against Gonzaga on Saturday. Eventual leader Joey Dorsey of Memphis currently sits 10th nationally (18.9%).

Best Defensive Rebounder: Aaron Gray of Pitt is hauling in 31.9% of his opponents missed shots while he is on the court. He’s averaging double-digit rebounds in only 24.9 mpg. Granted, against weak competition.

Biggest Ballhog: Jose Juan Barea uses 37.8% of Northeastern’s possessions while he is on the court.

Thanks to some reader e-mail, I can begin work on the history of great scoreless streaks in college hoops. Illinois fans were quick to point out that their team blanked Northwestern for the first 15:13 of a February 19, 2000 game at Welsh Ryan. And Duke fans insisted I point out that the NCAA Record Book is about as accurate as Wikipedia, as Dean Smith four-cornered his UNC team into a scoreless first half of a 1979 game at Cameron Indoor.

The information regarding the longest scoreless streak is the second inaccuracy we’ve found in the Record Book. You’ll recall the bogus “final regular season poll” data much referenced by media outlets last April.

Suddenly those awful offensive games by Southern Miss don’t appear to be so bad. Last night, Princeton tied the record for fewest points scored by a Division I team in the “modern era” (since the three-point line was introduced) in a 41-21 loss to Monmouth. Princeton, who regularly is among the best at passing the ball, recorded two assists on their nine made field goals for the game. The game’s 62 total points easily broke the modern-era record for combined offensive crappiness. The previous record was 67.

The Tigers went scoreless over a span of 14:52 in the second half. According to the NCAA Record Book, a school called Columbus owns this record by going scoreless for 15:33 in a 1984 game against UMass. Of course that was pre-shot clock, and Columbus wasn’t D1, so that record is somewhat tainted. Unlike some of the other records listed, the…

This date, 12-14-2005, is a day that marks a new dawn in this site’s development.

OK, actually I was going to try and rip off some of Kyle’s work in his latest essay. My conscience would be clear, too, since he stole the whole animated basketball idea from me. But truth be told, I’m not the essay type. And since about 60% of what he wrote applies to me, there’s no point in me trying to put it any differently because I can’t put it better. I’m off to do some stuff for espn.com. It’s all crazy and weird and I could say a bunch of stuff, but let’s not make too big a deal out of this.

So you may be wondering what will be happening here. Even if you’re not, I’ll tell you. Line o’ the Night will still be here and this will remain a…

It’s finals time at most schools, therefore the schedule is light this week. So expect a lot of ho-hum lines like this one, turned in against the worst team in D1 playing its second game in two days. Is it possible this season’s SSU squad is worse than last season’s?

The weekend’s Ugliest Game Award goes to yesterday’s battle between Creighton and Nebraska. Both teams shot under 30% from the field. Normally, you’d at least have the consolation of a close game in that circumstance, but Creighton won 70-44 in part due to 31 Nebraska turnovers, the most by a power conference team so far this season. Now for the better performances of the weekend…

Keydren Clark is the guy you’ve heard of from St. Peter’s. He’s averaging 22.4 points a game (he posted 42 against Niagara yesterday), but he’s doing so on a yucky 42% in the eFG department. Sowell probably deserves to get the ball a little more. The best way…